Sales Training

Do You Leave a Stamp or a Stain?

I meet with a lot of sales managers in the course of doing business. The biggest complaint I get from them is that their sales people just never do what they�re supposed to. Simply put �close deals�.

Training and Motivation

Their sales people have been given the right training, there are great incentives to sell, they�ve been on team build after team build, they�ve heard every motivational speaker under the African sun, they�ve been given sales, motivation and self-help books to spur them on. Nothing seems to work.

Let�s get real and take some responsibility. Sales people know what it takes to be successful (if you�re new to the profession, here�s the Haiku version: Proper planning and time management leads to sales people, getting a pipeline of suspects, prospecting for quality appointments, making tons of calls, followed up with plenty of appointments, which leads to a proper sales meeting and a call to action (ask for the order) and follow up once the order has been delivered. This is more or less as simple as the job gets.

What's the problem?

So, what�s the problem? After chatting to a number of people, I�ve come to the conclusion that it is a challenge that is not in the hands of a sales manager or her company to fix up. No amount of motivation, team building, training, cajoling, threatening and sucking up will ever be able to sort it out. Yesterday, I had lunch with two inspirational speakers, Gavin Sharples and Johan Pienaar. They struck on something that might lead somewhere. The word character was mentioned.

Maybe it all comes down to a question of character. You either have it or you don�t. I don�t even know if it can be learned and I don�t know if there is a seminal work out there or a �Road to Damascus� experience that can bring it out?

Get out the Dictionary

It is a nobility of spirit that gives one a moral compass to do what is right. The Oxford Dictionary describes ~character~ as integrity, honour, moral strength/fibre, fortitude, backbone, resolve, grit, will power.

I suppose character is about doing the right thing and doing things right. There is nobility in every deed.

Check out this Nonsense (I wanted to put it a bit stronger)

After checking the phone bill, one of my clients found out that her sales person was helping his wife run her business on the side. When confronted, his argument was that he only did it in the quiet times. Catch a wake up bud; there are no quiet times in sales � if you�re not in front of a prospect, you�re doing everything in your power to get in front of a prospect.

One of the teams I recently lead regularly quit working after 12 pm on a Friday. (I know that no other sales managers have this problem � it just seems to happen with my
teams;-)). Their excuse was that all other businesses take off then and they can�t see any clients. Arghhh! What about doing your admin, building your prospect base so that you can start phoning immediately on Monday morning instead of scrabbling around for leads and trying to look busy?

It all just leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. The origin of the word character comes from the Greek word kharakter �a stamping tool�.

So here�s the rub � in all our endeavours do we leave a stamp (of nobility) in people�s hearts or a stain on their carpets?

When people come into contact with us do we leave a good taste or a bad taste in their mouth? We can decide right now to do right thing and do things right.

Copyright 2005 by Jacques de Villiers 

This article may be copied or republished with the following credit:
"By Jacques de Villiers, Inspirational Speaker, Johannesburg, South Africa.
+27 (0) 11 884 2319      www.jacquesdevilliers.com"